It doesn’t seem to matter which way it is. to die.”Īctually, it was more like “OK, Bob,” and “I dow I’b goig do die,” but all stuffiness of the head aside, it’s nice to know now that my mom was half right when she repeated the old adage, “Feed a cold and starve a fever,” or the other way around. I’d say “OK, Mom,” hang up and immediately disobey, falling into bed with the slowly mumbled words, “I know. And she usually suggested that I fix some sort of mild and innocent-looking sandwich - one that wouldn’t make my eyes warn my stomach that something offensive was coming. I could have been a little delirious from fever, but I actually thought I heard God giggling.Īs I grew older, and got out on my own, my mom still telephoned me and recommended what she called Campbell’s Penicillin. Technically, I hadn’t had a chance to lie about being ill, but I was trained in the religious principal that “it’s the thought that counts as a sin,” so it sure seemed like I was being held accountable. Which meant that I still got to stay home but I only felt like eating a little bit of my hot lunch and didn’t get to play around at all. I didn’t even like to admit that back on the day when I decided I was going to fake being sick, but then actually got sick before I could carry out the plot.

It is disconcerting, even this many years after my mother’s passing, to have to admit that she was right about anything. Chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and glasses of orange juice for everybody. So gather around the lunch counter, gang. “Good news - starving is never the correct answer.” The website’s answer was administered in a small dose of what seems to be common sense health advice. Those were the questions that began an article on the “Cold & Flu Health Center” page of WebMD, which prescribes online “Better information. “Do you starve a cold and feed a fever when you’re feeling under the weather? Or is it the other way around?”

Anyway you slice it you are amazing